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Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Southern Names

I often see on forums posts about "Southern names". Admittedly, the closest I've ever been to The South is a layover in Houston, but I really have no idea what a "Southern name" is.
Being a dork, of course I set out to discover that statistically.

I combined the lists of 14 states of "The South" (yes, I know, what's in the South is up for debate. For your interest: AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV), and pulled out which names are proportionally more common in The South. The results were surprising.

The most "Southern" names in the Southern states' Top 1000:
Boys:

Alexandre

Jamarcus

Jamarion

Cason

Braylen

Tylan

Demarcus

Braylon

Lawson

Zaylen

Kason

Brentley

Kylan

Courtney

Judson

Hayes

Coleman

Braylin

Chandler

Cayson

Girls:

Romina

Mariajose

Landry

Gentry

Eiza

Renata

Nahomi

Vianney

Aracely

Martina

Ariadna

Angelie

Regina

Jaqueline

Sterling

Adamaris

Arleth

Azul

Geraldine

Ivanna

And to narrow down a bit further, from the states' Top 500:

Boys:

Cason

Braylen

Braylon

Lawson

Kason

Brentley

Kylan

Hayes

Chandler

Cayson

Case

Princeton

Raylan

Cannon

Channing

Jamari

Bryson

Jayceon

Karson

Joe

Girls:

Romina

Landry

Renata

Regina

Jaqueline

Ivanna

Aranza

Araceli

Ayleen

America

Fernanda

Alisson

Ariadne

Violeta

Ximena

Arely

Frida

Galilea

Paulina

Montserrat

And even more narrowed down, from the states' Top 100:

Boys:

Bryson

Brantley

Braxton

Juan

Ayden

Kaiden

Kayden

Jose

Jeremiah

Jase

Easton

Bentley

Grayson

Josiah

Carson

Christian

Christopher

Levi

Brayden

Jordan

Girls:

Regina

Fernanda

Ximena

Alejandra

Jimena

Alondra

Alessandra

Carolina

Aylin

Daleyza

Camila

Melany

Ana

Angelique

Kamila

Valeria

Nayeli

Catalina

Daniela

Melanie

I'm pretty surprised at how much more Spanish-influenced the girls' list is! Crazy. (you can mostly blame Texas, as far as I can tell)
If you take out the names that are currently trending in Spanish-speaking countries from the girls' side, the list changes quite a bit:
(from the boys', just take Juan & Jose out, and tack Tristan & Joshua to the end)

Alessandra

Angelique

Leslie

Giselle

Ashley

Nicole

Daniella

Valerie

Alison

Amy

Londyn

Madeleine

Vanessa

Alina

Juliette

Camille

Leilani

Kayla

Juliana

Rose

Now, I noticed an interesting phenomenon when I looked at the bottom of the lists, the least Southern names--lots of boys' names ending in -o! Nico, Rocco, Theo, Arlo, Milo, Leo. And for the girls', quite a few word-names: Luna, Ruby, Melody, Daisy, Jade, Hazel, Iris.
What's the opposite of Southern? Hipster? ;)

And in case you wanted any more trivia, the Southern Top 10, and the national SSA lists for comparison: